Hey Rory and casuarina nuts

[treeman]

Miserable weather here so I'm stuck looking at a screen instead of repotting.......

Anyway, Tell me what you do with casuarina leaves/needles. Do you pull them off to the ''correct'' length? What happens to them then?

[Rory]

After 5 years, you crack the %&*^ and grow a better variety with shorter needles.

None of my trees are show worthy or even close to being. So I have no need for needle length reduction.
I have mixed thoughts on the answer to this though Mike.

I often cut needles with branch cutters and don't get die back at the ends, and other times I do. If it dies back, you can just snap off the dead section and the remaining needle is now shorter.

If you hold the needle at the point of the length you are happy with, and just twist or pull the excess off it can sometimes be better at reducing slight die back on the needle. But when my trees are show worthy there is no way I could be bothered doing this. 4 weeks prior to showing I'd probably just cut the needles, then a few weeks later just snap off any excess dead bits that resulted.

So... I haven't really been pedantic at following this up. Obviously when the trees are nearing show worthiness I would investigate it more, but for the time being I can't give you the best answer.

Generally slowing down the growth rate of the tree by the usual methods of restricting the roots and waiting longer between repotting will eventually result in slightly shorter nodes/needles.

[Rory]

Hang on..... does this mean what I think it means.....

Mikey Smurf is growing casys!!!!



Its about bloody time.

They're hardier than pines, look better than pines, grow faster than pines, and are way cooler than poncy pines.

[treeman]

They're hardier than pines, look better than pines, grow faster than pines, and are way cooler than poncy pines

.

Let's not get carried to far away there boyo!

Hang on..... does this mean what I think it means.....

Mikey Smurf is growing casys!!!!

eyez a been a grow'n sheoaksez since before you was a chew'n.

[shibui]

I've only recently started to work on foliage density with these. At this stage I'm just shearing like Rory has suggested. Still none show worthy so no issues if I get some brown ends but regular shearing is producing some much better foliage pads.
Pulling the stems would probably be preferable but who has that time?

[Rory]

eyez a been a grow'n sheoaksez since before you was a chew'n.

hhaha.

Do you mean trees, or bonsai?

If yes to bonsai, you can't make that comment and not show them here....

....
Waiting..
...

...

Still waiting

[Boics]

My experience mainly comes from this tree being a Torolusa:

viewtopic.php?f=56&t=18000&hilit=casuarina

I generally pinch twist at a join to remove any unnecessary length or to promote ramification.
I find when growth is new is the best and they break quite readily and neatly.
If you leave too long then it's harder to break and sometimes a "core" remains which can be unsightly.
When new I can simply grab groups of leaves at a time and harvest quite readily...

[Raymond B]

Just a bit of a hijack, what's the best time to dig one and how big can it be to still survive? We have a hundred growing at work on the boundary at various different stages.
Thanks, Raymond

[shibui]

I don't think anyone has the experience to answer your question absolutely Raymond. We're all just feeling our way with many native species and don't yet know everything there is to know.
Best accumulated knowledge so far points toward warmer weather being the best time for root reduction and therefore collecting ground grown trees? but there may be other times no-one has explored yet.
Not enough results have been contributed and collated yet to work out how big casuarinas can be collected or what techniques or care give best results.

Trying things out and contributing the results like Boics has done in the thread listed above will gradually add to the meagre store of current knowledge so have a go and let us know what you did, when and what happened.

Note for casuarina collectors. Some species produce lots of suckers so what appears to be separate small trees may in fact be suckers growing directly from the roots of a nearby older tree. These rarely seem to have roots of their own so are difficult to dig or re-establish.

[delisea]

Hi Raymond,
As Shibui says warm is good. Also try putting your pot in a tray of water, I have had some success doing this.
Post picks if anything works.
Cheers,
Symon

[Boics]

If I recall correctly i successfully struck a finger sized little cas. Sucker with next to no roots.
I'm pretty certain it was spring or early summer.

Ive always found trees that "sucker" seem to strike a little easier.

As always the more roots the better and after care is important.

[Raymond B]

Thanks everyone, I'll wait a few weeks as I pick out a few candidates. Maybe I'll try a different size trees and see how they go... If I have room for them